On Wednesday 18 January, the European Commissioner for Migration, Dimitris Avramopoulos, visited Lesbos in Greece to observe the situation of migrants and refugees in the camps there. He also used this visit as an opportunity to assess the impact of the EU/Turkey agreement of 18 March, which calls for migrants that have illegally entered the EU since this date to be returned to Turkey. He called on member states to step up their efforts in providing assistance to Greece in this regard.
The visit of the European official comes at a time when NGOs and charities are consistently criticising the conditions in which the refugees in Greece and on the Greek islands are being accommodated, given the particularly low temperatures in this region. Last week, Médecins sans Frontières denounced the “worrying” situation affecting people stuck on the Greek islands who are “living in tents in overcrowded camps”.
On 18 January, Human Rights Watch raised the alarm regarding the conditions confronting refugees, asylum seekers and other migrants who are disabled but who are not correctly identified as such, have no equal access to services in the reception centres in Greece and remain without protection in these particularly bleak weather conditions.
In a press release, the Commissioner stated, “…we all, Greeks, Europeans, have a humanitarian imperative to alleviate the situation here on the islands, for the migrants as well as for the inhabitants of these islands”.
The Commissioner promised that the EU would continue to support Greece in an effort to work out solutions as it already has been doing. He added that, "With over €1 billion in financial support made available for Greece in the past two years, Greece is the biggest recipient of EU home affairs funding. And we are ready to provide more aid where needed”.
He also called on all the other EU member states, “to continue stepping up the number of people they relocate from Greece and offer safe haven in their own countries”. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)